With Thanksgiving threatening to obliterate any and all opportunities to watch movies in lieu of – gasp! – spending time with family and friends, the list of Blu-ray releases available this week is painfully small. But last week’s glut more than makes up for this one’s shortage, so we’re including a few high-profile titles that we overlooked at the time.

Among this week’s picks are true cinema classics, unheralded works from great filmmakers, anthologies from iconic directors, and, last but not least, The Expendables 2.

Empire of the Sun (Warner Home Video)

The One-Liner:Steven Spielberg’s WWII coming-of-age story comes to Blu-ray for the first time, reintroducing the world to one of the director’s unheralded masterpieces even as it revisits one of Christian Bale’s earliest roles.

The One-Liner: The sequel to Sylvester Stallone’s epic team-up film arrives on home video, offering action junkies another chance to check out a fun, grown-up (but definitely sophomoric) adventure.

Picture Perfect? Although the film looked wildly uneven on the big screen, the disc’s digital transfer is remarkably consistent, offering a saturated and detailed picture that looks great on the small screen.

What Else Is There? A series of featurettes looks at the legacy of the film’s heroes during their heyday, and accompany more traditional fare such as deleted scenes and a gag reel.

How Badly Do I Want It? As the most irresistible dumb entertainment of 2012, this is a must-see for popcorn-munchers, but it’s up to your affection for the stars that will decide whether to rent or buy it.

Heaven’s Gate (Criterion Collection)

The One-Liner: Michael Cimino’s film is widely considered one of the biggest flops in movie history, but Criterion resurrects it in order to give it a second chance.

Picture Perfect? Despite a disclaimer in the liner notes of the packaging, the transfer is truly amazing, offering a glorious high-definition image that makes the film look better than ever, especially in this release’s 216-minute director’s version.

What Else Is There? A collection of detailed, long-form featurettes and interviews recorded expressly for Criterion gives the film a cultural and artistic context that helps newcomers appreciate its merits.

How Badly Do I Want It? As a renowned flop, its immediate appeal is primarily for long-term fans, but skeptics will find much to dig through here, making it a worthwhile rental or purchase.

The One-Liner: One of the greatest epics in cinema history, David Lean’s opus comes to Blu-ray in a deluxe box set that bolsters the film’s quality and impact with a spectacular array of supplements and extras.

Picture Perfect? Appropriately, SPHE spared no effort making sure that the film looks absolutely magnificent in high definition, making its dusty landscapes and grand vistas shine with a vividness and clarity that surpasses all previous editions, and ranks among the best transfers of the year.

What Else Is There? Although some of the supplements are from previous editions, new interviews with cinephiles and filmmakers like Martin Scorsese provide added perspective and even more historical context to the film’s enormous legacy.

How Badly Do I Want It? Not just a great pick for yourself but for any movie-loving relative, this is a cinematic experience unparalleled by virtually all others, and this set provides just the sort of celebration it deserves.

Tarantino XX 8-Film Collection (Lionsgate)

The One-Liner: Lionsgate collects all eight of Quentin Tarantino’s films (including True Romance, which he only wrote) in a box set celebrating the filmmaker’s 20 years in Hollywood to commemorate the forthcoming release of Django Unchained.

Picture Perfect? As all of the titles previously existed on Blu-ray in their own versions, the transfers are nothing new, but the good news is that all of them were solid and consistent, giving his films the sheen and clarity they deserve.

What Else Is There? In addition to supplements that appeared on the individual releases, the set includes two discs of extras, such as a two-plus-hour retrospective on his work, and a conversation between film critic Elvis Mitchell and Tarantino, Pam Grier and Robert Forster in conjunction with Jackie Brown.

How Badly Do I Want It? Truthfully, if you’re a fan at all, you probably already have most or all of these films, but it’s a nice little set with some great artwork that is worth investigating, certainly if you own fewer than half of them.

Watch the trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained below.

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This past weekend, the ambitious sci-fi epic finished number 3 at the box office, opening with $9.4 million. Budgeted at $100 million, Atlas is hard-pressed to make back its money.

Here’s a quick look at more big-budget films forever stuck in the red.

1. John Carter

Production Budget: $250 million

Domestic Gross: $73 million

You know your movie is a dud when its distributor can’t wait to tell the world how much money they’ve lost.

Less than two weeks after its release, Disney reported that they would take a $200 million loss on the Mars-set action epic. In doing so, the studio basically sentenced director Andrew Stanton and star Taylor Kitschto Movie Jail.

Director Michael Cimino’s (The Deer Hunter) 1980 Western cost the equivalent of a gabillion dollars in today’s money, and forced distributor United Artists to go bankrupt. Which explains why the movie is still a sore subject, more than 30 years after its release.

3. Mars Needs Moms

Production Budget: $150 million

Domestic Gross: $6.9 million

Another costly bomb from Disney, this 2011 release forced The Mouse House to shut down the motion capture studio that made it.

Science is still trying to calculate the number of fu!@s audiences couldn’t give.

4. 1941

Production Budget: $32 million

Domestic Gross: $94.9 million

After scoring huge hits with Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1941 marked Steven Spielberg’s first major critical and box office disappointment.

The only good thing to come out of this 1979 WWII farce was that it forced the director to go “less is more” with his next project, Raiders of the Lost Ark.

5. Battleship

Production Budget: $209 million

Domestic Gross: $65 million

2012’s second big-budget flop headlined by Taylor Kitsch, director Peter Berg’s adaptation of the Hasbro board game proved to be a huge “miss” with audiences. In fact, that pun is arguably better than the entire film.

Based on the popular cartoon series, this long-anticipated from directors Andy and Lana Wachowski looked like a hit on paper. Then it hit theatres and, well, this 2008 release will just have to settle for slowly becoming a fan favorite.

11. Cutthroat Island

Production Budget: $98 million

Domestic Gross: $10 million

Director Renny Harlin made a pirate movie starring then-wife Geena Davis and Matthew Modine, and managed to bankrupt its studio in the process.

Everything in the above sentence makes sense. Too bad the filmmakers didn’t know then what they certainly know now.

Are you on the fence about seeing Cloud Atlas? Watch our video review below to see if you and your wallet can help save it at the box office.

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